In other words, who would talk to you.

It's difficult to judge the motives of hundreds of thousands of people based on a representative sample of, say, six.

You confuse "sincere" with "simple". Politicians, especially, can be complex people, because they need to look at their community through a kaleidoscope and must try to perceive the pattern emerging through its fragmented images. But that doesn't mean that the core of their own personal beliefs is not sincere.

Before you go on with your armchair psychoanalysis of us Libs, you might consider why you are so convinced Obama's support is not for a man. Using the theory of White Guilt, Jesse Jackson ought to have won the Democratic nomination when he was running for President. He didn't. As a man, Jackson was found wanting by many of the same people who may be Obama supporters today. Is it so difficult for you to imagine that someone might vote for Obama because he's inspiring?

Another factor may be his age. I'm pretty sure that quite a few people 10 years younger than me, and younger, would like nothing better than to slam the bossy Boom out of office at long freaking last.